From Max A. Cherney:
Flowr Corp. FLWR, -0.56%FLWPF, -2.62% said late Thursday that it had received approval to list on the Nasdaq Capital Market. The Canadian weed producer will trade under the ticker FLWR and begin trading at a date it will set out in its 40-F, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. "We have made tremendous progress against our strategic priorities in 2019, and the approval of our listing on the Nasdaq further enhances our capital markets objectives. This listing provides us with broader access to investors around the world and is a natural progression for Flowr," Chief Executive Vinay Tolia said in a statement. Flowr stock fell 0.6% in regular trading Thursday as the S&P 500 index SPX, -1.19% dropped 1.2%. NASDAQ:QQQ May 23, 2019 6:16pm

From Tomi Kilgore: Chip stocks continued their broad selloff Thursday, as investors feared that the U.S.-China trade war will last longer than previously expected. The PHLX Semiconductor Index SOX, -2.22% slumped 2.2% in morning trade, with 29 of 30 components losing ground, as the S&P 500 SPX, -1.19% declined 1.2%. The SOX, which has now shed 15.5% this month, has dropped below the 200-day moving average, which is widely followed as a tracker of longer-term trends, and is now in danger of the first close below that technical indicator since Feb. 4. Among the SOX's biggest decliners, shares of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD, -3.76% slid 3.6%, Micron Technology Inc. MU, -3.60% dropped 3.5%, Nvidia Corp. NVDA, -3.19%gave up 3.5% and Qualcomm Inc. QCOM, -2.73% shed 3.4%. The lone gainer was Cypress Semiconductor Corp.'s stock, which tacked on 0.5%. Analyst Vivek Arya at Bank of America Merrill Lynch said chip companies appear to be expecting some trade resolution by the third quarter, soon after President Trump meets with China's president Xi Jinping on June 28 to June 29. "Overall, we believe the U.S. holds significant leverage in the current trade war (semis perspective), and can continue to exert even more pressure (restrict additional Chinese customers) which should lead to some resolution," Arya wrote in a note to clients. NYSE:SMH

Shares of chip suppliers are under pressure following the Trump administration's restrictions on doing business with Huawei.

Google has suspended business activity with the Chinese giant. Other Huawei suppliers, including Qualcomm, Broadcomm and Intel, reportedly told employees they will not sell to the Chinese firm until further notice.

U.S. chip suppliers are losing a big customer as Huawei purchases $20 billion of semiconductors each year, according to an Evercore estimate.

A sell-off in chip stocks intensified Monday following a report that semiconductor makers are cutting ties with Huawei following restrictions imposed by President Donald Trump's administration.

The U.S. Commerce Department last week blacklisted Huawei and effectively halted its ability to buy American-made parts and components. In wake of the restrictions, Google has suspended business activity with the Chinese giant. Other Huawei suppliers, including Qualcomm, Broadcom, Intel and Xilinx, told employees they will not sell to the Chinese firm until further notice, according to Bloomberg News.

U.S. chip suppliers are losing a big customer as Huawei, the world's largest provider of telecom equipment, purchases $20 billion of semiconductors each year, according to an Evercore estimate.

Shares of Xilinx tumbled nearly 5% on Monday, while Qualcomm stock dropped nearly 5%. Shares of Analog Devices, Broadcom, Advanced Micro Devices are all under pressure following the Huawei ban. TheVanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF are down more than 3% on Monday, almost 15% below its intraday all-time high. All but one component of the ETF is correction levels or worse as of Monday and almost half the 25 stocks is in bear market levels.
"Let's be clear - we are talking tens of billions of dollars impact," said C.J. Muse, senior equity research analyst at Evercore, in a note on Saturday. "Loss of this business would slow down investments by U.S. chipmakers, thereby reducing the competitiveness of the U.S. semiconductor industry - and that is a national security issue that the U.S. government needs to consider as well."
U.S. restrictions could particularly hurt companies that have meaningful revenue exposure to 5G and the Chinese market, according to RBC analyst Mitch Steves.
Analog Devices has 12.5% of revenue exposure to 5G, while Skyworks Solutions, Qorvo, Broadcom, Qualcomm and Xilinx are all relying on the growth from 5G infrastructure, Steves said. Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia are the two companies responsible for high-end data center computing, the analyst said.
"We view the Huawei and China/US relationship as a negative overhang on the semiconductor space and a lift of either would likely send the semiconductor industry materially higher (5-10% in our view)," Steves said in a note on Sunday.
The administration's move to cut off Huawei's access to U.S. technology followedits tariff hike on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods earlier this month, which sent the semiconductor sector into a downward spiral.
"This decision was likely a negotiation tactic by the Trump administration to bring China back to the table," Evercore's Muse said. "The clear risk here is that while President Trump believes he has achieved leverage in the negotiations, we may have pushed China past the precipice and that the current technology cold war gets engrained and accelerates."
-- CNBC's Michael Bloom contributed to this report.

The VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH) was trading at $102.23 per share on Monday afternoon, down $3.20 (-3.04%). Year-to-date, SMH has gained 4.52%, versus a 7.08% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.
SMH currently has an ETF Daily News SMART Grade of A (Strong Buy), and is ranked #16 of 81 ETFs in the Technology Equities ETFs category.
This article is brought to you courtesy of CNBC.NYSE:SMH May 20, 2019 1:10pm

From Jeremy C. Owens: For months, chip companies have been telling investors that a rebound is right around the corner. As MarketWatch warned months ago, there was little evidence to back up those claims, and Nvidia Corp. admitted as much Thursday afternoon, throwing a wet blanket on an after-hours bounceback for its beleaguered stock and shares in other chip companies. NYSE:SMH May 17, 2019 1:21pm

From MarketWatch: Stocks clawed back early losses to end mostly higher Friday, but the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite still suffered the biggest weekly declines of 2019 as trade tensions between the U.S. and China escalated. The Trump administration early Friday boosted tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods to 25% from 10%. Stocks hit session highs after President Donald Trump Friday afternoon tweeted that talks would continue and that tariffs "might or might not be removed" depending on future negotiations. The S&P 500 SPX, +0.37% rose around 11 points, or 0.4%, to end near 2,881, according to preliminary figures, leaving it with a weekly decline of 2.2%; the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.44% ended the day with a gain of around 114 points, or 0.4%, near 25,942, for a 2.1% weekly fall. The Nasdaq Composite COMP, +0.08% rose around 6 points, or 0.1%, to close near 7,917, leaving it with a 3% weekly fall. NASDAQ:QQQ May 10, 2019 10:28pm

Semiconductor stocks are on track for their biggest weekly percentage loss in more than three years as a weak growth outlook from Intel Corp. further pressured a sector already rattled by a resurgence of trade uncertainty.

From Shawn Langlois: The stock market managed to bounce off the lows of Monday's session, but the fierce selloff that led to a 500-point plunge on the Dow DJIA, -0.59% early on provided another example of just how vulnerable investors are to global trade tensions and President Trump's itchy Twitter finger. NASDAQ:QQQ May 6, 2019 2:46pm

From Mark DeCambre: The Nasdaq Composite Index midday Thursday fell to its lowest level since mid April, giving up a perch above a psychologically significant level at 8,000 after the technology-heavy index rang up a series of records earlier in the week. Most recently, the Nasdaq COMP, -0.32% was trading off more than 50 points, or 0.6%, at 7,999, putting it on pace to close below 8,000 for the first time since April 18, according to FactSet data. The broader stock market also was under pressure, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.59% and the S&P 500 indexSPX, -0.31% falling solidly in the wake of a Federal Reserve Wednesday policy update that some one Wall Street are interpreting as less easy-money as investors had hoped. NASDAQ:QQQ May 2, 2019 1:46pm

From Sunny Oh: U.S. stock-market benchmarks were mostly lower at the opening bell on Tuesday after Google's results weighed on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, even as solid earnings from MacDonald's lifted the blue-chip Dow. The S&P 500 SPX, -0.15% .. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.03% .. The Nasdaq Composite COMP, -0.84% ... Investors kept a steady eye on the busy earnings week, while gearing up for the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting on Wednesday. In economic data, China's factory activity showed Beijing's stimulus had yet to work itself into the manufacturing sector, and a solid eurozone first-quarter GDP number staved off fears of a broad-based recession across the 19-member currency bloc. Both a component of the Nasdaq and the S&P, shares of Google parent Alphabet Inc.GOOGL, -8.25% retreated 8.2% after revenue growth slowed in the first quarter. McDonald's Corp MCD, +0.60% rose 1.1% after same-store sales growth for the fast-food firm came in better than expected. NASDAQ:QQQ

From MarketWatch: Stocks ended with small gains Monday, as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite moved further into record territory at the start of a week that features a meeting of Federal Reserve policymakers and a busy economic calendar, as well as a continued deluge of corporate earnings. The S&P 500 SPX, +0.11% rose around 3 points, or 0.1%, to close near 2,943, according to preliminary figures, while the Nasdaq COMP, +0.19% gained around 15 points, or 0.2%, to end near 8,162. The finish marked a second consecutive record close for both indexes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.04% gained around 11 points to end near 26,554. NASDAQ:QQQ April 29, 2019 5:20pm